Laurel Glenn Wellness

02/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FKTKYcxaf/

'Full moon at the stones'
Callanish, Isle of Lewis

Snow moon at Callanish this evening...

02/01/2026

Amazing ancient Ireland!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FDRa2Rt54/

🟢 Rathcroghan 🏺🌿

Rathcroghan, known in Irish as Ráth Cruachan, is one of the most significant royal landscapes in ancient Ireland. Located near Tulsk in County Roscommon, it functioned not as a single seat of power but as a ceremonial and political heartland for the kings of Connacht, with importance stretching from prehistory into the early medieval period.

Rather than a single monument, Rathcroghan is a vast archaeological complex, with over 200 recorded features spread across the surrounding countryside. Ringforts, burial mounds, ceremonial enclosures, ancient roadways, and large-scale earthworks point to centuries of organised activity, ritual gathering, and regional authority embedded directly in the land.

The landscape also holds a central place in Irish mythology, particularly within the Ulster Cycle. It is closely associated with Queen Medb, and nearby lies Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cats, described in medieval literature as an entrance to the Otherworld. Seasonal assemblies at Samhain are placed here in literary tradition, though these accounts belong firmly to mythological narrative rather than archaeological record.

What distinguishes Rathcroghan archaeologically is how much of it remains unseen. Modern understanding of the site has come largely through non-invasive geophysical survey, revealing extensive subsurface structures without large-scale excavation. This hidden complexity suggests a deliberately structured ritual landscape rather than an isolated royal site.

Rathcroghan reminds us that Ireland’s earliest centres of kingship were not defined by stone castles, but by landscapes shaped over generations through ceremony, authority, and collective memory.



📸 Irish Roots

02/01/2026

Brigit and the collection of sacred dew
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ag1zqfvU3/

Bratóg Bríde

On the eve of Imbolc, when the night settles cool and the world holds its breath before the turning of the year, the Bratóg Bríde is set outside. It is a small piece of cloth taken from something well loved, a strip of linen from a drawer, a shawl once worn close, a child’s kerchief softened by years of use. Cloth that has lived in the house and carries its warmth.

The Bratóg is placed where the night can touch it. On a windowsill where frost gathers. On a door handle that meets the cold. Hung from a bush or tree so it moves gently in the breeze. Some lay it on the Brídeóg’s bed. Some set it near the threshold beside a candle. Wherever it rests, it waits beneath the open sky for Brigid to pass.

In old belief, Brigid moves quietly through the darkness on this night, her mantle trailing blessing. As she passes each home, she touches what has been left for her. The Bratóg takes on her protection and healing. In the year that follows, it is kept with care, wrapped around a sore wrist, laid on a fevered brow, tied near a cradle, or carried by those who must travel far from home.

The cloth is set out at dusk. Children bring it to the door with shy excitement. Older hands smooth it once more before it is placed into the cold. For a moment the house grows still, as if listening.

As the Bratóg is laid down, the blessing is spoken:

May Brigid bless the house wherein you dwell,
Bless every fireside, every wall and door,
Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof,
Bless every hand that toils to bring it joy,
Bless every foot that walks its portals through.
May Brigid bless the house that shelters you.

The Bratóg lies beneath frost and starlight through the night. Before sunrise on Brigid’s Day, it is brought back inside, quietly and with reverence, carrying what it received.

Reflection
What small thing in my life am I setting out with trust, hoping it will be touched by blessing?

01/26/2026

Pleiades, READING RAVE https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bm8mPcKhh/

🌙 Tomorrow night, the Moon drifts past the Pleiades star cluster — also known as the Seven Sisters — creating one of the most beautiful celestial pairings of the season.

Shining about 440 light-years away in the constellation Ta**us, the Pleiades will appear as a tight group of blue-white stars just beside the Moon. As darkness falls, the Moon’s glow may soften some of the fainter stars, but the cluster will still sparkle vividly in the night sky.

🔭 Best viewed after sunset, looking toward the southeast.
A truly timeless meeting of Earth’s closest companion and one of the sky’s most famous star families.

✨ Don’t miss this cosmic encounter.

Watch the beautiful story about the Moon and Seven Sisters(Pleiades): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpVY_WNZmtg

01/26/2026

READING RAVE...further to the story.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16osujQzLR/

Long before Gaelic kings or Viking longships claimed Scotland’s rugged north, the Picts—“the Painted Ones” to the Romans—held sway from the 3rd to 9th centuries AD. Their legacy survives in enigmatic symbol stones scattered across the landscape: swirling spirals, mythical beasts, crescent moons, mirrors, and double discs etched into granite, whispering of a society rich in ritual, art, and resistance.

Central to Pictish culture was an unusual degree of female power. Many scholars argue their society was matrilineal—kingship passed through the mother’s line, a rare system in early medieval Europe that limited foreign claims to the throne and elevated women’s status. Women appear in art as armed figures or paired with men in positions of authority; Roman accounts describe fierce Pictish queens leading men into battle, bodies painted in blue woad that shimmered under northern sun and rain.

These women were not exceptions but integral: warriors, clan leaders, and spiritual figures who embodied both martial strength and sacred knowledge. The Picts resisted Roman legions, then later Gaelic and Norse incursions, maintaining independence until gradual merging with the Scots around the 9th century under Kenneth MacAlpin.

Without written records of their own, the Picts left no chronicles—only stones, symbols, and echoes in outsider accounts. Yet those symbols speak clearly: in a land of storms and stone, women ruled beside men, their power carved into history as enduring as the granite itself. Before the Highlands were tamed, Pictish queens stood defiant against empire and time.

01/26/2026

01/26/2026

This special piece is looking for a home! Made with Arbutus wood, from the shores of Vancouver Island..
8 inches tall with a large quartz crystal 💫